GO Into the Battlefield
by ArtisticNarwhal66
Summary: [pokemon go] An observation on why premeditated battles against other trainers are jam-packed with safety precautions and strict rules in the best interest of everyone's safety- yet battles for gym ownership are not. T for slight gore. Crossposted on Wattpad.


It is a question that struck them one evening, strolling down the asphalt kingdom lain before them, as they gazed upon a gruesome battle for a gym. Red turned to yellow turned to blue. But then everything was red again despite Mystic standing victorious in the settling dust.

Despite their disgust at seeing such a thing they continued on their way with little more than a grimace and a cringe.

And they didn't think about it again until they saw two friends— Instinct and Valor— instructing their Pokemon on what moves to use in the heat of battle. And yet there was no red aside from the fur and scales of their Pokemon and the hat of the Valor boy. And as the Instinct girl threw up a Protect Shield, they recognized what had been bothering them.

Why were there no safety precautions in the gyms, the monument of a team's victory? Despite there being so, so many in a premeditated duel between trainers?

And the simple answer is that there is no protection, no one left unscathed in the war, the battle, because the best time to attack was when the enemy least expected it, when there was no safety precautions aside from the spray bottles in your backpack and little yellow diamonds shoved into your pocket because yeah, you took more damage, _but so did they_, and really all that matters is the end result of winning, of the claim that you can now make truthfully, that _you were better_, and some people ask why. Why, why do this to your friends, the Pokémon who have so faithfully followed you since the beginning, to _yourself_?

But you pay them no heed because you know the answer— the answer that everyone will give before they-_you_\- blow the asker off and strut away to go show off what they- _YOU_\- can do, because that is the answer— the ability to show off, you and your gym that you now own because you won and they didn't and you don't think to wonder what happened to them in your glory-induced haze- but there isn't any glory in this, this endless battle of blood and gore and the warm blood of your team and their team spilling out onto the smooth floor, warm as your proud mother's hands when she embraces you as you tell her of your latest victorious expedition.

And, of course, the _glory_ and _power_, the oh so sweet taste of strength and victory that drugs you and leads you into your infamous kingdom of power, because honestly the higher-ups are listened to for a reason and now that you're a higher-up you scoff at the peasants below you who dare raise their hand to ask this very question that I am now answering, because power and strength is more addictive than heroin and can be taken away three times as quickly, but that doesn't matter in the moment, because right now the tantalizing taste of independency is too much to pass up.

So when there is a battle planned out, rules lain before you like the Geneva Convention lain before the countries who dare participate in such acts, you forget to use the purple shield and sometimes your Pokemon don't listen to you like you want them to because they're tired of this, of the scars they carry and the revives you shove into their mouths after a torturous battle and you _dare_ reprimand them as they're panting and sweating and bleeding and at first crying, but then they grow battle-hardened and the Growlithe you raised as a pup is now an Arcanine who wishes nothing more than to let the pain fade away into death.

Because even if the fighting stops, the wars end, there is still the psychological scars they have to face every morning and every night as they close their eyes and envision their friends falling and the innocent fainting as they bite them more than they need to, slash them more than necessary, because maybe if they hit hard enough the opponent will slip into the sweet embrace of death because they don't wish for their supposed enemies to suffer the same fate as them.

And so the easiest answer is that there is no protection against possible death or serious injury because the trainers don't care, because this is a needless war in the greatest interest of our wealth and our glory and our victories against those who dare wish for the same.

And this will never stop, never end until we do. So what is there to do? If you have any heart, any morales at all you will stop and you will cry and you will apologize endlessly to the Pokemon who fought- fight- for you. But if you don't?

GO into the battlefield.

**This is just an idea that popped into my head, there's no need to actually stop playing Pokemon GO. And also yes the people in the first paragraph or so are Candela, Blanche, and Spark. Fite me.**

**DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything except the plot and the story**


End file.
